Secrets version 2
by Kalithekat
Summary: Danny's dad finds out his secret! How will Danny cope with Jack's crazed response and another mysterious menace...? Note: This story is a revised WorkInProgress of another story of the same title.


Author's Short Note: This story is a revised version of another story I wrote, called Secrets. This version will be a lot longer and have a lot more content and plot, if I manage to do all 19 chapters. We'll see. Review and tell me what you think (and if you must, you may read the unrevised version, though I seriously do NOT recommend it as the plot is going to be changed immensely!). :)

Chapter One

A Ghost Extracting Dilemma

The night air was cool, blowing into the basement through a tiny window, which was level with the grass. A lone figure sat at a table, working hard on a project. All of a sudden, a dog's frantic barking came from outside, making the man jerk up his head in slight alarm and excitement. The light from a lamp lit him with an odd glow, revealing the massive body and bright orange lab coat of Jack Fenton. He quickly grabbed a tool from the table and brandished it out, yelling, "Come out, come out, wherever you are, ghost!"

All that happened was a slight stirring of the papers on his desk, as if through a misty breeze. Jack looked about nervously, searching for the source. There was none, at least none visible at any rate. He gulped and stepped forward.

All of a sudden, he felt as though his body had been ripped open. It was pain like he had never felt before. His eyes widened in shock. He then collapsed, unconscious, onto the floor. The breeze blew again, and a few moments later, Jack got up again, wiped the dust from his lab-coat, closed the window, and whistling a merry tune, got back to work.

Danny Fenton, a fourteen-year-old boy dressed in plain jeans and a white shirt, ate his toast quickly and grabbed his backpack to go off to school. It was a normal day, though he would end up looking back on it for years to come. His mom was busy frying an egg for Jazz, his sister. His dad was working on another invention as Jazz was telling Jack all the reasons why his ghost hunting was ruining their lives.

"...and thirteenthly, you've never even found a ghost! And fourteenthly you really sho-" Jazz was telling him.

"Okay, Jazz. You've made your point, honey," Danny's mom, Maddie, told her. "I realize you don't approve of our jobs, but it is what we do. You'll understand someday."

Jazz sighed, shaking her reddish hair back and forth as she shook her head. "Parents..." she grumbled.

"Erm. Dad? What are you working on?" Danny asked, changing the subject. His father was seemingly putting another finish touch on his invention, and Danny was genuinely curious to see what it was. While most of the inventions his dad created were worthless, he knew that some of them could actually help him in ghost-fighting, such as the thermos and the fishing line.

His dad's eyes lit up. "Danny, this is the Fenton Ghost Extracting Machine, which is soon to be a tm for sure! It's an updated model of the one I made earlier. If someone-," and there he glanced at Jazz with a very suspicious glare, "-is infected with some sort of ghost-like-thing, it'll get rid of it! And in this version, it should hopefully suck out any ghostly substance that is in something," Jack told him, as if he was reciting off of the box on a store. Danny stared at the invention, slightly worried. What if this one was one of the few that actually worked?

His dad turned back to the invention, and with a quick flourish, wrote on the vacuum-cleaner-like invention "Fenton Ghost Extracting Machine—It's Never A Ghost Extracting Machine Without The Name Fenton On It!"

He gave Danny a lopsided grin and let out a loud whoop of joy.

"There! It's done! Let's give it a try, eh Danny?"

Danny gulped, looking at it with a slightly worried expression. "Oh, Dad, um…er…I have school, you know. So, um, I gotta go..." He rushed out the door, his dad calling after him, saying that they'd try it out after school, together.

Danny caught his breath a few blocks outside the house and told himself with a strained calm voice, "It won't work; don't worry about it…get a hold of yourself!"

The school bell rang as Danny entered Casper High at a speedy jog. "Great. I'm late…again." He muttered. He ran to his locker and took out his books and sprinted to his first period.

Later that same day, during lunch, Danny got a chance to speak with his friends Tucker and Sam about his problem. "He has another new invention. I'm kind-of worried about it, since I'll be in the room and it can get rid of ghosts from humans. I'm an example of how that can happen!" Danny said, his fear redoubling into panic. "What do I do?"

Sam thought about this, a frown on her face. Her violet eyes looked pensively back at Danny. "Well, he doesn't know you're a ghost, so he won't use it on you. Let's just hope it doesn't backfire…like his experiments usually do. Heh, you're a living proof." Danny gave her a dry smile.

Tucker then piped up, "Just tell him that you have too much homework. That should work."

"Yeah, okay. Sounds good, Tucker. I hope it works! If not, well then…" Danny trailed off. The threesome's sad silence was proof enough of what would happen. Danny would lose his powers and Amity Park would be at mercy to all the ghosts.

Later on that day, back at home, Danny walked tentatively into his house. He called from the top of the basement about his homework situation to his dad. Jack came up from the basement into the hallway and looked pretty cheerless about the fact that Danny couldn't work with him.

"Oh well. I was hoping you'd be able to help me fix it. I tried it on Jazz, but it still must not work. It didn't do anything to her!" He told Danny with a sigh. "Worth a short, though."

Maddie entered the hallway from the family room. She exchanged a look with Jack, which Jack returned, looking slightly uncomfortable. She cleared her throat and said, "Danny… your father and I-" Jack shrunk back and Maddie glanced at him with an annoyed expression on her face, "-are worried about you. You seem to be doing all these school projects late at night, sometimes with your friends, yet your grades aren't coming up! And you seem to be withdrawing from us a lot. What is going on? You're also pretty jumpy a lot, running from the room at random times…It's like you're seen a ghost, or something!" she concluded with a laugh, failing to notice the horrified expression that appeared on Danny's face for a second.

Danny looked at them, speechless, and laughed along with her, though extremely nervously. "Erm, Stress? Yeah. Lots of stress. Lots of schoolwork. It's, er, tough." He looked at them fearfully. "Now I need to do some homework. Bye!"

He ran upstairs to his room, very quickly, and slammed the door.

Maddie looked at Jack. "Hmm...Something is not right about Danny. What should we do?"

Jack looked worried for a moment. Then he put on a grin and said matter-of-factly, "He's going through a stage! Yes. I remember being his age. Awkward. Wanting a pony. Yes...a pony...HEY! We ought to buy a horse someday!" He got all excited, and began rambling about the horse of his dreams.

Maddie looked around exasperated. "I really hope that you're right..."

Danny collapsed on his bed. He closed his eyes and sighed. He though to himself, 'I'm not sure how much longer I can go with this secret! They (well, more like my mom) seem to be figuring it out. The way she said ghosts...' He opened his eyes, staring at the ceiling. He felt like he had the weight of the world's troubles on his shoulders.

'If they find out, I don't know what they'll do! Great. I'm under too much stress already!' he thought. "Ok, Danny, you're going to pull yourself together! C'mon now, or how else are you supposed to fight ghosts and at least attempt at getting Bs?"


End file.
